Mountain View voter turnout more than doubled during Anchorage’s first vote-by-mail election this spring.

In precincts 500 and 505, where turnout has previously hovered below 7 percent, approximately 15.58 and 13.5 percent of registered voters cast a ballot in the 2018 municipal election, according to results published by the Municipal Clerk’s Office. It’s the first time the neighborhood has seen double-digit voter turnout in a municipal election in more than five years.

The increased voter turnout followed weeks of coordinated outreach by local civic groups. In early March, before the election began, volunteers canvassed the neighborhood to distribute information about the new vote-by-mail system. Later that month, local nonprofits hosted a Ballot Box Bash at the Mountain View Library to encourage participation in the election process. By the time the final ballots rolled in a few weeks later, neighborhood turnout had increased by more than 100 percent over years past.

The upswing is part of a citywide trend, election results show: Nearly 80,000 voters cast ballots in this year’s municipal election, setting a record in the process.